Knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of family physicians regarding vegetarian/vegan nutrition

Vegetarian nutrition is a diet that is basically defined as 'not consuming animal food', and is subdivided into various subtypes according to the varieties of animal foods that are not consumed. Veganism is a way of life where no animal food is used, as well as no products that are experimented on animals or no animal products are used in its production process. The prevalence of vegetarian / vegan nutrition and the interest in this issue are increasing worldwide. However, there is no study in the literature examining the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of the primary care physicians who will be seeing these individuals more frequently together with the increasing prevalence. In this study; we aimed to determine the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of the primary care physicians working in the central districts of the province of İzmir regarding vegetarian / vegan nutrition. The population of our cross-sectional study consists of 796 primary care physicians working in the central districts of İzmir province. The sample size was calculated as at least 247 family physicians. Survey form included questions about the demographic information, participants' view about vegetarian / vegan nutrition, their attitudes and behaviors towards vegetarian / vegan individuals and the level of knowledge regarding health effects of vegetarian / vegan diet. Descriptive analyzes were performed for all data, and for comparisons, Chi-Square test for categorical variables and Student's t test, ANOVA and correlation analysis were used for continuous variables. For participants' each correct answer, 1 point was given and their knowledge scores were calculated. In addition, Cronbach's Alpha test was applied to measure the internal consistency of 31 questions regarding knowledge level and 13 questions about self-evaluation, opinions, attitudes and behavior. A total of 307 family physicians were included in the study and their mean age was 44,01 ± 7,440. 39.4% of the participants were women, 80.5% were married and 12.4% were living with a companion animal. Their total number of years spent in the profession was 20,45 ± 7,336 years. Only 1 of the participants was vegetarian / vegan, only 2% (n = 6) had previously tried vegetarian / vegan nutrition, and 16.9% (n = 52) of them had vegetarian / vegan individuals in their family or in their inner circle. The rate of those who stated that they did not receive any education regarding health effects of vegetarian / vegan nutrition was 94.8% (n = 291). Their mean knowledge score was 11.45 ± 3.71. No significant correlation was found between the knowledge score and age, biological sex, number of years in profession, number of years in a primary healthcare center, daily average number of patients, average time spent for each patient, and their self-assessment about having received adequate education (p> 0.05). The mean score of those who had vegetarian / vegan individuals in their family or in their inner circle and those who thought that vegetarian / vegan nutrition is not against human nature was significantly higher than other participants (p <0.05). All in all, it was found that family physicians who participated in this study had poor knowledge about vegetarian / vegan nutrition and its health effects, their opinions and attitudes about vegetarian / vegan nutrition were negative, and that they are insufficient for managing their vegetarian / vegan patients. Moreover, most of the participants think that the education they received both before and after graduation is not sufficient. Factors that affect physicians' knowledge level, opinions, attitudes and behaviors regarding this issue should be examined in more detail with other studies and needs should be examined with an integrated approach with other disciplines if necessary.